Culinary Guardian

Origin - Culinary Guardian

The Story

"Mystic Saibashi, to me! Let's cook!"

Becoming a Culinary Guardian starts with one thing: the Irori Senbei, a special type of rice cracker baked on the hearth of Sanbo-Kojin, the god of the kitchen. These mystical senbei are ferried to the world of the living by spirits who serve the kami, tasked with finding young girls (and sometimes boys!) worthy of using Sanbo-Kojin's flames to burn away impurity.

Eating one of the Irori Senbei unlocks the magical potential of the young girl in question and allows them to transform into a Culinary Guardian, ready to cleanse evil with the power of a good home-cooked meal. This power is intrinsically linked to a particularly strong memory of the Culinary Guardian's childhood, a memory where food brought them joy and made them feel warm and loved. They become the Culinary Guardian of the food from their memory, using its properties and ingredients to defend against those who intend to spread misery and ill-will.

The Powers

Culinary Guardians are built just as much for fighting as they are for cooking, so their outfits reflect that. Short kimono provide ease of movement while their maekake are there for protection, though mostly just from spills. After all, Culinary Guardians are built for speed and power, not defense, so they rely on their ability to avoid attacks rather than soak damage. It's just as important to be fast on your feet on the battlefield as it is in the kitchen, after all!

The grand majority of a Culinary Guardian's basic attacks utilize a weapon best suited to whatever food they represent. Blades, hammers, and other dangerous tools can be found in the kitchen, and so a Culinary Guardian must learn how to use their utensils correctly.

When it comes to more advanced attacks, the Culinary Guardians can focus their magical energies into beams, waves, or other projectiles. Each of the Culinary Guardians have their own flavor, based on their representative foods, that is reflected in their attacks. It might be the boiling broth used in a hotpot dish or hot oil to fry things to a delicious golden brown, but each attack has an element of fire thanks to the influence of Sambo-Kojin, the god of fire, hearth, and the kitchen.

Kitchen God Mode

"Things are heating up!"

In a pinch even the Mystic Saibashi can be used as instruments of war, but those are best saved for emergencies or their more traditional usage during Kitchen God Cooking mode. Culinary Guardians brought forth by the mystical Irori Senbei, baked on the hearth of Sanbo-Kojin itself.

Once transformed, all Culinary Guardians are compelled to fight the forces of evil. Their transformation provides them with weapons to do so, but their most potent power is also their simplest: the power of good food. By expending a significant amount of power, a Culinary Guardian can enter Kitchen God Cooking mode, where time freezes and they are transported to the spirit realm where a fully-stocked kitchen stands ever ready to assist them. Here, they can whip up anything from a light snack to a full-course meal imbued with the purifying power of Sanbo-Kojin's fire. Feeding this food to someone who has been corrupted has the potential to heal them, bringing them back to the side of the light. Given that it's hard to force someone to eat when they don't want to, though, it's important that their enemy has been defeated first! Especially as Cooking Montage mode almost guarantees the transformation power will run out, usually leaving the Culinary Guardian only a few moments to make a hasty exit before who they really are is revealed.

Style

Spirit Guides

Originally servants of Sanbo-Kojin, the spirit guides that assist the Culinary Guardians in their adventures are responsible for both providing the Mystic Saibashi to trigger the henshin, as well as then transforming into their assigned Guardian’s weapon of choice. As that implies, they are shapeshifters, able to become corporeal and take the form of a wide range of things both living and inanimate. They can appear as pets or wild animals, stuffed plushies, or even smaller items like phone charms, allowing them to stick close to their Guardian at all times.

So long as they are transformed they are undetectable to those with any kind of “sixth sense”. Generally they still must communicate the usual ways (either verbally or non-verbally) but when transformed into their weapon form, they can invade their Guardian’s mind to speak to them directly.

Out of Henshin

The spirits who serve Sanbo-Kojin also become guides to the young Culinary Guardians, using their powers of shapeshifting to stay by their sides throughout the day. Most of the time they conceal themselves in plain sight, either as a small companion animal or a cute accessory like a fuzzy keychain. This is important not only so that they can advise their young charges, but also because they are the keepers of the Culinary Guardians' henshin devices, their Mystic Saibashi!

In Henshin

All Culinary Guardians have two items of distinction. One is their Mystic Saibashi, the oversized chopsticks that serve as a multi-tool of items in the kitchen for everything from flipping food on the grill to stirring ingredients. The other item is their maekake, a short apron worn about the waist, generally made from leather that has designs of their chosen cooking path on it. Otherwise, their garments vary from cooking style to style, from bakers hats or bandanas to trousers or skirts and everything in between.